There is some speculation as to the date of the Greyhound Dog pub that once stood facing the Belmont Roundabout. A previous study of the site drew the following conclusions about this building:

'At one time a handsome building, but recently rather neglected, this is a fine example of a double-pile building that is probably of late 18th century date. However, it should be noted that there is a building of similar shape and size in this position on Taylor’s 1757 map.' (Shoesmith 1997)

The difficulty here appears to be marrying the architectural style of the building (late 18th century) with the building shown on the site in 1757. Brailey's map of 1806 also shows a building on the same site. The shape of the building has altered slightly but the form is roughly similar, and the layout of the frontage with Drybridge House does not appear to change. If the Greyhound Dog was rebuilt on this site around 1800 then the new building occupied an almost identical footprint to that shown on Taylor’s map.

Causeway Farm

Whilst it is known that the land associated with the farm was owned by the Dean and Chapter of Hereford Cathedral in c1190 the site of a farm of this period was not known until this work was undertaken.Causeway Farm was described by the Royal Commission as being T-shaped with the front re-faced in brick but the timber-framing exposed on the other elevations.In 1891 both Pool Farm and Causeway Farm were functioning, the former with Richard Millechamp as farmer and the latter with Edwin Gough.

By 1937 only Causeway Farm was still functioning with Henry Clutterbuck as farmer; Pool Farm had been converted into cottages in 1924. Between the two, Vincent Chappell had opened his garage (Shoesmith 1997). It has been suggested that it probably takes its name from a raised path (Causeway) bounded on one side by a chain fence (thus chain causeway). The name 'Causeway' may have a greater antiquity and refer to the possible line of a Roman Road here.Pevsner saw Causeway Farm and assigns a 17th century date for the building. The last tenant was Richard Henry Clutterbuck in 1911 who presumably farmed there until 1947 when the farmhouse and ten acres was sold. It was demolished in July 1961.

Medieval

Medieval remains from the 12th century onwards were found around the road frontage. At least some of these might suggest an early origin to Causeway Farm. Remains of the farm itself survived beneath rubble from its demolition. These included a wall and surface of probable Post-medieval date. It appears that ecclesiastical masonry was reused in the wall.

A pottery industry on the banks of the Wye

by Kath Crooks and Dale Rouse

A substantial dump of kiln wasters including both pottery and roof tile was uncovered during construction work for a new ASDA supermarket, on the southern side of the River Wye in Hereford. The evidence for local pottery manufacture came from two locations within the site. One a formally excavated trench in an area occupied by Causeway Farm (the deeds for which survive back to the mid 13th century), the other to the east of this in an area subject to a watching brief. At the first of these locations the following sequence of layers were recorded from top to bottom:

a Post-medieval cobbled surface

a patch of orange brown sand and cobbles at the south end of the trench

pebbles and cobbles in a pinkish sand matrix forming a surface

a mixed layer of Cobbles and gravel in an orange brown matrix = 478

a dump of kiln waste distinctive enough to be recorded separately

the remains of a cobble surface

natural clay.

In the second location an area of medieval metalworking was identified and in summary comprised (again from top to bottom):

a black ashy deposit containing slag and pottery

a burnt red clay

a sooty cobbled surface covered in slag.

The following types of sherd have been classed as wasters:·

those with glaze on their breaks

those that are clearly over or underfired

those with other types of glazing faults.

Although many of the remaining fragments of pottery and tile were probably also wasters they were not classified as such due to a lack of definitive evidence. There is some evidence to suggest that pottery and roof tile were made on the same site as the rim or base of a jug was found, fused by the glaze to a fragment of tile. The material has been identified as Herefordshire fabric A7B, described as ‘fine textured with a few small rounded quartz grains, generally less than 0.3mm. White mica and a few sandstone fragments occur. Brown clay pellets are distinctive, being 0.1mm to 3.0mm across. The white slip contains angular quartz and white sandstone fragment but no mica.’ (Vince 1985). The most common form from the site was the rod handled jug, with a central knife cut groove to the handle. Forty-two fragments of these handles were recovered (11% of the total number of sherds of this fabric). Strap handles were present, in smaller quantities. Bases seem to have been thumbed/frilled, (23 examples) though plain bases were also present (7 pieces). The form of the frilled bases meant that it was difficult to measure size with any certainty though most seem to have been about 15cm in diameter. It could not be ascertained whether the rod handles and frilled bases were associated or whether the rod handles were associated with plain bases. Both inturned and squared rims were represented; squared rims seem to have been associated with rod handles though Alan Vince (2002) states that rod handles occur on both rim forms. The few spouts were pulled with no examples of bridge spouts. In addition to the large/medium sized jugs five small jugs with rod handles were represented. No bases of these vessels were found. Two handles of pipkins or skillets, and sherds of internally glazed cooking pots, and of bowls of dishes, also internally glazed, suggest that other forms were made on the site. Although these were found in the waster dumps there was no definite evidence that they were wasters. A single finer sherd in this fabric, with a clear, green speckled glaze possessed glaze on a broken surface. In general the body sherds were too small for the form to be evident. This is largely a result of the fact that the waster dumps were used as consolidation, and were therefore further crushed and broken during use of the surface.

However, the vast majority of vessels seem to have been jugs.Wasters of flat tiles and ridge tiles were present, with moulded crests on 6 ridge tiles out of 259 tile fragments. The crests were luted onto the tile with the join being a point of weakness as in the majority of cases the decorative crest had broken away. There was some variety of surface treatment, though it should be noted that many of the fragments of tile were very small and a patchy or incomplete glaze may mean that different fragments from a single tile could have been recorded more than once and as having different surface treatments. No surface treatment was present on 83 fragments (32%) while 156 were glazed (60%). The glaze varied between a thick glossy coating and occasional splashes, which might have dripped from other vessels in the kiln.

On 26 examples the glaze appeared not to have fluxed. Although there have been previous finds attesting to the presence of a pottery industry in Hereford or its immediate surrounds, none were as substantial as the waster dumps on the ASDA site. However, 34 wasters, of this fabric were found on Wye Street in 1985/6 (Vince 2002) 400m north-east of the present site, the excavators believing that the kiln might have been at some distance from the find site. Wye Street was known in medieval times as Rodipot Way (Tonkin 1966) and it seems possible that the name Rodipot could refer to pottery, implying an industry along the south bank of the Wye. Vince considered this to be a typical location ‘on the outskirts of the town in an area where settlement seems to have started in the later 13th century’.

Fabric A7B is first found in mid 13th century contexts in Hereford and is considered to be residual by the mid 16th century (Vince op. cit.). It was the main fabric in Hereford in 14th and 15th centuries accounting for over 40% of the pottery recovered from city contexts. Although kiln wasters had previously been found in the area, giving rise to the suggestion that this pottery was produced in or around Hereford, the only site at which substantial waster dumps had been found in the county was at Weobley. Vince (op. cit.) speculated that the pottery found in Hereford originated from more than one source and it is now certain that this was the case.

More pottery of this fabric (337 sherds) than tile (274 fragments) was recovered from the site. No kiln has so far been found though the earlier discovery of a kiln spacer at Greyfriars Bridge suggests that one existed in the vicinity. Although the wasters may have been moved for a certain distance, as they were eventually used for consolidating surfaces, the quantity suggested that they were easily available. The waster dumps all contained material of later date (16th century), probably intrusive from continued use of the surface while the kiln wasters from a dump thought to derive from metalworking debris were associated with 13th –14th century pottery of other fabrics.